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Both sides are using movies to try to win the fracking debate, though actor Matt Damon says viewers should not assume the movie he stars in, Promised Land is “a rabid anti-fracking polemic.”
Not so long ago, fracking was a technical term little known beyond the energy industry. Now it’s coming to Hollywood, as the fierce battle between environmentalists and oil firms is played out in several forthcoming films.

TORONTO — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he would tell off Russian President Vladimir Putin “directly to his face” if he becomes prime minister.
Trudeau accuses Putin of “being dangerous” in eastern Europe, “irresponsible and harmful” in the Middle East and “unduly provocative” in the Arctic.

The infuriatingly catchy Russian electro-pop song opens with a lament about the singer’s boyfriend, who has been in a fight again, drunk something “nasty” and — finally — been dumped.
Then, it kicks into its relentless refrain, the woman declaring she wants “a man like Putin … One like Putin, full of strength, One like Putin, who won’t be drunk, One like Putin, who wouldn’t hurt me.”

In 1877, the Russian Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire, seeking among other things to reclaim its Crimean Black Sea naval port of Sevastopol.
Soon after, a young mystic poet and philosopher named Vladimir Solovyov gave his first public lecture in Saint Petersburg. A “wild looking” intellectual gadfly with long hair and “fiery” eyes, he expressed a vision of Russian destiny that, a century later, has made him a philosophical hero of the man behind Russia’s latest Crimean adventure, the long-serving autocratic President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, I showed you how things are rapidly falling apart in Iraq, especially where the Iraqi oil industry is concerned.
But there’s a silver lining. While the world’s oil traders chew their fingernails thinking about how much worse it could get in the Middle East, they’re finally taking a look at another source of oil. One close to you and me.

The U.S. and European Union put Russian President Vladimir Putin on notice that they will be united on imposing sanctions if he’s unwilling to defuse the Ukraine crisis and pursue a negotiated solution.

CALGARY — Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using his country’s energy resources to intimidate his opponents.
Concerns over Ukraine’s financial condition mounted this week after Russian state gas company Gazprom said it was cancelling a substantial discount on natural gas granted to the former satellite country in December. Mr. Putin, meanwhile, noted Ukraine still owes Russia about US$2-billion for gas.